Heller is for Forma-plast and probably not Xiloplasto...

. . . but they might still, also be Chromoplast, but not now actually Heller! And they may only be Forma-plast in late, unpainted, rack-toy style carded bags? This is pulling together everything from two or three (?) previous posts going back to the early days of the Blog, along with my efforts in Google Translate and leaves just as many questions hanging as previous stabs at it, but also . . . maybe . . . a little more clarity?

The box again but collaged more sensibly than last time! This was why I had pencilled them in as Heller (and why Heller will remain in the tag list!), but translating the text below the giant 'a' gives us;

Auguri di mondadori, Per dipingere I soldatini si consigliano le vernici Heller

(actual text)

Mondadori wishes, To paint Toy soldiers are recommended Heller paints

(direct translation)

Mandatory advice

For painting the figures we recommend Heller paints

(full translation?)

So it seesm Heller were only mentioned in passing, although the large logo being included would suggest money crossed palms somewhere?

Also we have the large a-logo, as none of the brands (Forma-plast, Heller, Landi-Cromoplasto, ROplast Partenopea, Xiloplasto) previously linked with this set start with an 'A', that only serves to confuse? Is it a logo; does anyone know the branding?

The contents of the box; As unpainted figures, they are not rare, appearing as these boxed sets (I've seen or know-of four or five over the years), as rack-toys on runner and as rack-toys loose in sets and singly-packed with the artwork of the specific figure on the card. They are a dense 'Hong Kong' style polyethylene or -propylene and depict Italian Carabinieri through the ages.

From left to right the figures are

Carabinieri

012 - Carabinieri in Cavalry Uniform, 1814
013 - Officer in Full Dress, 1833
014 - Carabinieri in Cavalry Uniform of 1838
015 - Marshall of Carabinieri, Foot, 1876
016 - Carabinieri Officer in Dress-down Uniform, 1927
017 - Carabinieri Officer in Full Dress Uniform, 1938
018 - Carabinieri of the Viceroy's Guard, Occidental Africa, 1939
019 - Carabinieri Officer (Colonial Administration), Africa 1939
020 - Officer in Cavalry Full Dress Uniform, 1940
021 - Carabinieri Staff Officer, Foot Guards Dress Uniform, 1940

I despair for the state of the pink monkeys!

Carabinieri [Carabineers] are (or were) heavily-armed cavalry of the Napoleonic (and other) periods, but I think I'm right in saying they survive in modern-day Italy as a Gendarmerie-equivalent national or federal police, or paramilitary police-force.

Carabiners or Karabiners are climbing aids!

The painting sheet included in the box; also reproduced on the backs of the card hangers of the rack toys, or singly with the individually-bagged figures. A correspondent in a previous post suggested there was never a painted issue, but I disagree, as the figures depicted here in the photographs are as-good-as if not identical to . . .

. . . these figures, and both others I've seen elsewhere and others further down the page! The painting is also too constant, too practiced, yet too formulaic to be an amateur's work, whether a good painter or bad! These are commercially painted by the same workshop/team who painted the figures for the card, the only difference is the lack of 'coverage' of the dark blue paint.

Also; there's the obvious link between these and the sculptor of the Atlantic Greeks (probably also the Egyptians) and late sets in the WWII and Wild West lines, which is why I raised the ROplast connection, as they cleared old/surplus Atlantic at some point.

I happened to number the small scale versions of the next lot first, so I'll lead with them and then we'll look at the larger ones. Again I originally though these (or some of them) might be French (St Cyr, Presidential Guard or plain Cuirassiers), hence the keenness to link them with the logo'd Heller!

At least I got the cavalry type right -

Cuirassiers

037 - Cuirassier in Service Dress, 1910
038 - Cuirassier in Campaign Dress, 1910
039 - Cuirassier Officer, Ceremonial Parade Uniform, 1910
040 - Cuirassier Brigadier, Ceremonial Parade Uniform, 1910
041 - Cuirassier Trumpeter, Ceremonial Parade Uniform, 1910

The smaller yellow ones are from the Carabinieri set.

This quintet are clearly larger than the Carabinieri, and while the tallest of one and the shortest of the other are close, they are - as sets - two stand-alone groups; the masters may all have been to a similar size, but the pantograph or human pattern-maker/s used to produce the commercial moulds set them to different scales!

Another thing I missed last time - the fact that this whole set has different coloured bases! And the first of the last two (second from the right) could be home-painted.

Another set, they were actually five lots of feeble bay about 15 years ago, but I've collaged them a little better than last time. These may well be home painted with the extra gold on the helmets and some uniform differences from the others we've seen.

While the two sets are interchangeable for the purpose of display, if lined up by set they are different sizes, and above was my original picture with approximations, below it a more fastidious measuring of those which are closer together.

The green figure - looking more Cané or Atlantic-like - is still apparently a rarity, I have yet to see another, despite the commonness of both the harder grey ones and painted examples, he is manufactured in a softer 'Airfix' polyethylene

How they come-in, in the rack-toy bags; still on the runner and arranged according to the artwork on the cards, the smaller ones likewise but with a different runner, they (runners) tend to be machined, quite brutally, straight into the tool. Some bagged sets of the larger scale have loose figures.

Various other figures were announced and this (above image) translates (less than fully-accurately; any help appreciated) thus;

Collection of Italian Uniforms

Series 1) Carabinieri - 10 poses/pieces

Series 2) Cuirassiers - 5 poses/pieces; doubled

One Set

Series 3) [10 poses]

·         Grenadiers - 3 poses/pieces

·         Bersaglieri -  4 poses/pieces

·         Alpine Troops 'Alpini' - 3 poses/pieces

One Set

Series 4) [10 poses]

·         Carristi - 2 poses/pieces (Carlists?)

·         Paratroops - 2 poses/pieces

·         Lagunari - 2 poses/pieces (divers, spacemen?)

·         First series of cavalry - Academy - 4 poses/pieces (?)

One Set

Series 5) [10 poses]

·         Second series of cavalry -  Lancers - 5 poses/pieces

·         Third series of cavalry -  Heavy Cavalry - 5 poses/pieces

One Set

Series 6) [10 poses]

·         Officers of the State Maggiore - 5 poses/pieces (Magistrati - magistrates?)

·         Officers of Artillery - 5 poses/pieces

The artwork on the box contains most of the figures from the two sets listed here (also in the common paint scheme, but with all green bases), and the odd Bersaglieri appear on feebleBay from time to time, but it seems, or looks like the rest were never issued? But they may well have been mastered?

Comparison with a lone Lintek they happen to share a tub with, like an idiot I put them away without adding the Lintek set which came-in a while ago . . . ho-hum, next time!

When I looked at them the second time here at Small Scale World, and after a series of possibly less than accurate comments (he went off to run a hideously plagiarist site using text verbatim from Wikipedia or other historical websites/travel sites, using everyone else's images, while pretending to be a woman!), we ended up with this as a provisional listing;

25mm - Hong Kong (?) - ethylene (Yellow and ...) [No. of poses unknown]
30mm - Formaplast (?) - ethylene (White, Green, Orange) [3 poses (?)]
60mm - Cromoplasto - harder styrene/ethylene alloy (factory painted)
60mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?)- unpainted (various colours - 50's style!) [50 Poses]
60mm - Heller - grey nylon type plastic [14/20 poses (?)]

This can now be rewritten as follows

Carabinieri [10 poses]

30mm - Forma-plast - ethylene (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, white - bagged)

60mm - Forma-plast - harder polymer (grey - bagged)

60mm - a / Heller tie-in - harder polymer (grey - Boxed)

60mm - Cromoplasto - harder polymer (factory painted - packaging unknown)

Cuirassiers [5 poses]

35mm - Forma-plast - ethylene (red, yellow, orange, blue, green, white - bagged)

35mm - Forma-plast - harder polymer (orange, green, white - bagged)

65mm - Forma-plast - harder polymer (grey - bagged)

65mm - Cromoplasto - harder polymer (factory painted - packaging unknown)

65mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?) - ethylene (pale blue, mint green - packaging unknown)

Bersaglieri [4 poses (with 3 each Alpini and Grenadiers?)]

55/60mm - Xiloplasto/Landi (?) - ethylene (pale blue - packaging unknown)

And (in my inquisitive mind at least) ROplast are still hovering in the background somewhere possibly with Cané, along with between 35 to 41 additional poses? Forma-plast will do for now!

The only other text on the box not yet translated is the colorami e gioca which means 'Paint & Play'.